mkdecbootcd(1)

NAME

mkdecbootcd - A tool for making CDs bootable on DECstations

SYNOPSIS

mkdecbootcd bootfile cdimage kernel_entry
mkdecbootcd -m startsector count cdimage kernel_entry

DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the mkdecbootcd command, which generates a DECstation bootsector for an ISO-9660 CD image to allow the creation of bootable Linux CDs for DECstations. To make a CD bootable on a DECstation, execute the following steps:

1.: Generate a raw bootfile from an ECOFF kernel by calling "objcopy -O binary linux.ecoff bootfile".

2.: Get the value of kernel_entry from the kernel's System.map file.

3.: Master an ISO-9660 CD image containing bootfile.

4.: Mount the CD image via loopback mount (e.g. "mount -o loop,ro /path/to/my/cdimage /mnt/")

4.: Run "mkdecbootcd bootfile cdimage kernel_entry" with

*: bootfile being the bootfile IN THE LOOPBACK-MOUNTED CD image (e.g. /mnt/bootfile)

*: cdimage being the CD image file itself (e.g. /path/to/my/cdimage)

*: kernel_entry being the value of the kernel_entry label in the kernel's System.map. This can be either a decimal value, or (with a 0x prefix) a hexadecimal value

5.: umount the loopback-mounted CD image

6.: create a CD from the CD image

Besides letting mkdecbootcd determine the values for the bootsector from bootfile automatically, you can can call mkdecbootcd in manual mode with

mkdecbootcd -m startsector count cdimage kernel_entry

and supply the startsector and count values for the bootsector yourself.

Please note that, due to limitations in the firmware, DECstations can only boot from CDROM drives capable of 512 bytes blocksize. Many CDROM drives for the PC market do not support this. If your CDROM drive has a Jumper labeled "512/2048" or "Unix/PC", place it in the "512" respective "Unix" position.
For writing the CD, no special features of the CD writer are required, so you can use any CD writer, regardless whether it has support for 512 bytes blocksize or not.

EXIT STATUS

0: Succesful operation

1: Could not open bootfile

2: Could not get blocksize for bootfile

3: Invalid kernel_entry value

4: Memory allocation for bootsector failed

5: Could not open cdimage

6: Could not read disklabel

7: Could not write bootsector

8: Invalid startsector value supplied (manual mode)

9: Invalid count value supplied (manual mode)

AUTHOR

mkdecbootcd and this manual page were written by Karsten Merker <[email protected]> for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). They are licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.